Meet South Carolina’s anti-Trump double agents

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

Donald Trump triumphed in South Carolina’s primary last month. Now, the state could be ground zero for his undoing.

 

Ted Cruz and John Kasich are aggressively mobilizing allies to recruit and elect their own South Carolina loyalists to the national Republican convention — scheduled for late July in Cleveland.

 

All 50 of South Carolina’s delegates are duty-bound to support Trump on a first vote, but interviews with two dozen prospective delegates and party insiders — including several Trump backers — reveal a widespread belief that Cruz and Kasich will succeed in wresting the delegation away from Trump if the nomination fight heads to a second ballot. If Trump is unable to claim the nomination immediately, South Carolina could help tip the scales away from the New York billionaire.

 

“I could never vote for Donald Trump, ever,” said Vic Dabney of Kershaw County, S.C., a Cruz supporter who said he is pursuing a run for delegate. “He shares none of my values.”

 

Working against Trump is the fact that South Carolina’s potential delegates may only be drawn from the 925 party insiders who attended the state’s GOP convention in 2015. It’s a pool of party veterans who helped reelect the state’s GOP chairman Matt Moore — who has been vocally critical of Trump — with 83 percent support last year.

 

Some of the insiders who staffed that reelection fight are now working to help Kasich recruit delegates, even though the Ohio governor was trounced in the South Carolina primary, winning just 7 percent of the vote and finishing fifth among six candidates.

 

But it’s Cruz who enjoys support from much of the conservative activist class and seems best positioned to reap the support of double-agent delegates. Many prospective delegates contacted by POLITICO voiced support for Cruz and indicated they’d strongly consider voting for him on a second ballot.

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